Bitcoin more speculative than real currency, study finds

Dec. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Matt Miller reports on crypto-currencies and bitcoin competition. He speaks on on Bloomberg Television's "In The Loop." (Source: Bloomberg) Related Despite a Ban, China Is Largest Bitcoin Market Bitcoin behaves more like a speculative investment than a currency, according to a new economic study . Inspired by the virtual currency’s fivefold gain against the dollar in November, David Yermack of the Stern School of Business at New York University probed its historical trading behavior to see if it behaves like a traditional sovereign currency. His conclusion, contained in a paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research this month, is that it “does not behave like a currency at all” and has hallmarks similar to some Internet stocks that collapsed in the 1990s. Introduced in 2008, Bitcoins have spread rapidly with about 12 million in circul...